Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Michigan

Change Region

comments

Zingerman's 5th annual Camp Bacon coming May 29 - June 1

Bacon-street-fair-2012

Zingerman's William Marshall cuts slices of country prosciutto during the 2012 Bacon Street Fair at the Farmer's Market in Kerrytown. People came to taste all sorts of bacon products ranging from regular bacon to chocolate with bacon and maple bacon ice cream.
(Ann Arbor News File Photo)

Zingerman's annual celebration of all things cured pork is scheduled to take place May 29 through June 1 at venues across Washtenaw County. Panelists, experts, purveyors and fans from across the country and beyond will converge on the area to share in the bacon love.

The bacon weekend kicks off on Thursday, May 29th with The Bacon Ball. Host Nancy Newsom of Colonel Newsom's Aged Country Ham in Princeton, KY, will host a dinner prepared by James Beard award-winning Roadhouse chef Alex Young. The dinner will feature hams, bacon, prosciutto and other ham products. Tickets for the Bacon Ball are $70 per person.

On Friday, May 30, the action moves to Zingerman's southside campus for a hands-on Bakin' with Bacon class at Zingerman's BAKE, 3711 Plaza Dr., Ann Arbor. Participants will learn to make peppered bacon farm bread, bacon cheddar scones and bacon pecan sandy cookies, and can take home all the baked goods they make in the class. The cost is $130 per person for the four hour class.

Saturday morning, May 31, marks the start of the Camp Bacon Main Event. Campers will gather at Zingerman's Cornman Farms ( 8540 Island Lake Road, Dexter, MI) for a bacon-enhanced breakfast, followed by a day filled with talks and demonstrations from bacon superstars Nancy Newsom of Newsom's Ham, Bob Nueske, whose Nueske's Smoked Meats produces what the New York Times has called the "beluga of bacon, the Rolls-Royce of rashers," and Spanish Iberico pig expert and ambassador Raul Martin.

Zingerman's Camp Bacon Main Event runs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and costs $150 per person. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

On Sunday, June 1, the annual Camp Bacon Street Fair will set up at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, 315 Detroit St, Ann Arbor from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Bacon Street Fair is free and open to the public.

"It’s really going to be a farmers market, but for bacon," said Zingerman's marketing manager Pete Sickman-Garner. "All of the Camp Bacon vendors are going to be sampling their wares."

The Bacon Street Fair runs concurrently with the Sunday Artisan Market, and also coincides with the annual Taste of Ann Arbor just a few blocks away on Main Street.

Advance registration is required for the Bacon Ball, the bacon BAKE classes and the Camp Bacon Main Event, and all three tend to fill up quickly. For more information about Camp Bacon, including a complete list of special guests check the Zingerman's Camp Bacon website.

Zingerman's Camp Bacon is a fundraiser for the Southern Foodways Alliance, a nonprofit organization that documents, studies and celebrates southern food traditions, culture, stories, recipes and history.